Not connecting the ‘dots’

March 19, 2014

Islamic terrorists hoping for another opening to massacre Americans must wonder sometimes whether we can even see the "dots," much less connect them.

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America, investigators concluded that U.S. intelligence agencies failed "to connect the dots" regarding clues al-Qaida was planning an assault. They also learned many of the terrorists involved came to the United States as students, then managed to avoid detection as they prepared their bloody campaign. Some of those who piloted planes converted to missiles even learned to fly here.

Now, a Government Accountability Office investigation discloses the government is not doing a very good job of monitoring the tens of thousands of foreign students who come here to study each year.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have not "analyzed available information to identify and assess potential risks ... posed by schools and foreign students," the GAO concluded.

Government officials know a favored method of infiltrating the United States is to send people here as students. Yet they are guilty of the same failures that paved the way for the 9/11 attacks. Congress should insist that ICE do better in guarding against another catastrophe.